Slow and slow. I fished all day saturday and ended up with one take and one fish landed after about 8 hours of fishing. It was a beautiful wild fish. Some gear guys drifting corkies were hooking a few in the evening. My other friend and my brother both ended up with one take, but no fish.

Today I fished for about four hours before my first take and that fish ended up being a nice hatchery hen. Then my brother hooked one briefly about 10 minutes after me. The next fish came about an hour later when I moved down into a slot but it quickly came unbuttoned. I then missed two more takes but then ended up with one more hatchery fish just around 2:00. After that fish, both my friend and brother were ready to head home.

So, in the end 45 man hours of fishing between the three of us and only 3 fish landed and 2 others hooked. So one fish every 9 hours. I only heard of one other fly fisherman landing a fish on the river, but I did see a gentleman land a fish on a center pin set up while he was demonstrating it to me. He didn't even see his float pop down, I had to let him know.

I fished half day Saturday and half day Sunday until I returned home to Seattle. Brutal. Not even a tug. I did manage to catch one Dollie but otherwise nothing. Any other swingers experience this over the weekend?

I fished half day Saturday and half day Sunday until I returned home to Seattle. Brutal. Not even a tug. I did manage to catch one Dollie but otherwise nothing. Any other swingers experience this over the weekend?

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Yah, I couldn't buy a fish on the swing and it wasn't for a lack of trying I would say about 70% of my fishing was stubbornly swinging runs that I know hold fish. One run in particular I swung over a fish three times with three different tips, finally stopping at t-11, and three different flies with no results until I said uncle and switched to a 50/50 spoon.

Usually the Methow is a a 5wt two handed swinging game but the water was up much higher than normal and I found myself wishing I had brought a 7wt two hander and a 13' center pin so I could dredge the runs I can usually casually swing through.

Can anyone give me a quick explanation of what a "center pin" is? It's something I'm not familiar with. For a time I thought it was something related to gear fishing, but from the sound of it in this thread it is a fly fishing thing?

I Hear ya..........I eventually was swapping out flies out like crazy! This was my first time on the river for steelhead so I dont know the river levels etc. I was using my 2 handed 7wt rod which seemed like a good choice! As this is a new sport to me ............not sure what you mean by a center pin??

I liked the river......... just wished it were closer to home....4 hour drive after swing fishing is tough. The Seahawks made it easier though...GO HAWKS!

Can anyone give me a quick explanation of what a "center pin" is? It's something I'm not familiar with. For a time I thought it was something related to gear fishing, but from the sound of it in this thread it is a fly fishing thing?

Thanks,

Jason

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Centerpinning is its own thing entirely. Not easily explained without seeing a demonstration either.

I fished half day Saturday and half day Sunday until I returned home to Seattle. Brutal. Not even a tug. I did manage to catch one Dollie but otherwise nothing. Any other swingers experience this over the weekend?

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That's been it since the water temps dropped after the first few days of being open. We've hit fish on the spey rods, but it was on the dead drift with very heavy flies before the swing started.